Back from Brazil...with a message

This is a discussion on Back from Brazil...with a message within the Home (And Away From Home) Defense Discussion forums, part of the Related Topics category; Just back from over 14 hours of flight time yesterday morning & 30 hours between beds (can't sleep much on the flights.)
We were in ...

Back from Brazil...with a message

Just back from over 14 hours of flight time yesterday morning & 30 hours between beds (can't sleep much on the flights.)

We were in Sao Paulo & Botucatu for ten days. The nature of our business precluded any talk of gun rights or defensive weapons.

While looking over a draw thickly covered with plants and trees I asked one our Brazilian associates if they hunted deer. His answer was 10 years ago Brazil had banned sport hunting and firearm ownership. He said his father had been a hunter,but no more. He said he thought only the Indians in the rain forest could hunt.

At breakfast one morning alone with one of our entrepreneurs I eased into the subject of hunting showing her pics of a recent grouse hunt in the Colorado mountains. Her response was "So you don't hunt people only animals?" " Yes I only hunt animals." I replied. "Then you eat these animals that you kill"? "Yes" I said" I eat them." I went on to describe Duck hunting ..early hours sloughing through the marsh sometimes breaking ice, rain, sleet & snow etc. etc. She looks at me with a bit of disgust & says "So you do this for fun"? "Yes" I answer.

Post WWII Brazil was an autocratic government achieving full democracy via the ballot box in 1988.

"Full Democracy?" Yes that's what they say. Yet the people can't own a gun. The people can't hunt.
Hunting is now a distant memory,not fully understood.

The Government tells the masses of their freedom, yet they fear the common man.

I don't hunt. Flame me if you will. I don't have anything against others hunting if they do it responsibly.(Had an intense discussion with a neighbor who hit the side of my house.) I keep firearms for SD and enjoyment. 2nd Amendment big deal when voting. I could see us going the way of Brazil if not careful and some would call it good.

“’Professor, I can’t understand you. I don’t insist that you call it “government” – I just want you to state what rules you think are necessary to insure equal freedom for all.’

‘Dear lady, I’ll happily accept your rules.’

‘But you don’t seem to want any rules!’

‘True. But I will accept any rules that you feel necessary to your freedom. I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.’”

-Robert A. Heinlein
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

While the vote is important, crucial even, we have something even more powerful. That is the recognition that we ARE Free and our WILL to remain so.

Although, I must admit, there seem to be fewer and fewer of us every year.

Good thread and I was in Brazil earlier this year as well. I discussed firearm ownership with several residents of Sao Paulo where I was working. One man told of a story that when his father died and he settled his business, one of the first things he had to do was turn the one firearm over that his dad owned. Not sure I his dad had it legally or not, but thought he did. I just know it was a family heirloom and my friend walked it to the local police station and had to give it up. Like others said here, that isn't freedom. The crime rate in Brazil is crazy and yet people can't protect themselves. Guess it's kind of like Chicago, huh?